blizzara.org/balthier

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Gideon Emery (Septempter 12, 1972 in Windsor, Berkshire, England) plays the English voice of Balthier. He's done several voice acting roles for video games, as well as on-screen and stage work. Some of his more notable voices include Reese from Turock (2007) and as Orochi in Warriors Orochi (2007). He is scheduled for roles in Halo Wars and Resistance 2

Pehaps one of the most notable features of Emery's voice is his British accent. Balthier shares a similar accent with Vayne, Larsa, and Cid because they all hail from Archadia. The North American release of the game implements localization, and the easiest way to distinguish a character's homeland is through their accent. Bhujerbans have Indian (South Asia) accents, Dalmascans have American, Rozarians have Italian, and Archadians have a British accent.

Hiroaki Hirata (平田広明Hirata Hiroaki), born August 7, 1963, is the seiyuu (Japanese voice actor) for Balthier in the Japanese release of FFXII. He's done numerous anime roles, his more notable ones being Sanji from One Piece, Sha Gojyo in Saiyuki and Genma from Naruto. Like the pirate Sanji from One Piece, he took on another pirate role from Square-Enix as the voice of Jack Sparrow in Kingdom Hearts II. He's also the voice of Allen Ridgeley in the video game trilogy Xenosaga

In the seiyuu interviews from Final Fantasy XII Ultimania Omega, Hirata remarks how odd it was recording for a character with no hair at the time. Apparently, Hirata had to look at CG renders where Balthier's hair wasn't added in until later. He compares the similarities in his voice acting for Balthier to his previous experience recording for Jack Sparrow in Kingdom Hearts II; he notes how the production staff made him do a lot of lip-synchronizing in the begining. When asked about his opinion on Balthier, he describes him as a cool character who stands strong by his beliefs and never follows the crowd

During the promotion of Final Fantasy XII, Sonozaki Mie (the seiyuu for Ashe) and Koyama Rikiya (the seiyuu for Basch) were originally going to a commercial together, but due to a mix up with locations, Hirata and Sonozaki ended up doing the commcercial together instead. To Sonozaki's surprise, she wasn't aware of his role as Jack.

While in the studio, Hirata describes sounding too serious recording the first time around-- he admits that he was trying to sound like Koyama. They made him do the recording over, but in a lighter tone, in order to reflect the personality of his own character.